


Spaniel Heart

by sachspanner



Series: 7-Day Challenge #2 [1]
Category: History Boys (2006), History Boys - All Media Types, History Boys - Bennett
Genre: Coming Out, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Missing Scene, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-05
Updated: 2013-02-05
Packaged: 2017-11-28 07:31:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/671883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sachspanner/pseuds/sachspanner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for LJ's dailyfics comm, under the prompt "Secrets". Posner thinks he has a secret for Scripps, and nobody has anything for Posner. Set early on in the play, between scenes six and nine going off the radio version.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spaniel Heart

‘I want to tell you a secret.’

Posner’s voice was nasal and honest. Scripps hadn’t quite become used to the new voice. It had seemed that puberty was just something that happened to other boys, and so when it had struck Posner, Don was ashamedly surprised.

‘What makes you think I can keep a secret?’ he asked.

Posner thought for a moment.

‘Well, I can’t. You seem better suited.’

Posner meant that, even if Scripps did speak, nobody would listen. They didn’t tend to. Scripps knew this. He also knew Posner’s secret.

‘Out with it, Pos,’ he sighed. This had been coming a long time.

‘I am,’ he selected his words carefully, ‘a homosexual. And I’m in love with Dakin.’

Scripps knew that. Everybody knew that. The only secret was that Posner didn’t see that everyone knew.

‘It’s just a phase,’ Scripps offered.

He would write this one down. A small part of poor Posner, immortalised. Don wondered if he’d ever read it back. He didn’t tend to.

Posner wrinkled his nose. He had wanted more. He would always want more than life had in store for him. If this had been Shakespeare, he might have won Dakin only to die at his hands- such was his tragic nature.

Don’s mind wandered, trying to work out exactly how he was going to commit that sentiment to paper.

‘What do you think?’ Posner demanded.

‘Well,’ Scripps faltered. ‘The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself.’

‘Is that what you think that means?’ Posner gaped. ‘I asked you what you thought, anyway. Don’t give me another quote, it doesn’t suit you.’

Don hadn’t thought it would. Speaking for himself was hard enough.

Posner was quite insistent, now. He wanted to be told it would be alright, that, though it was a lie, Dakin would love him too. Scripps could not lie, even if it was the kindest thing to do.

‘Dakin is straight.’

‘How do you know?’ Posner asked.

‘Because he’s too obvious to be anything but.’

This was true, and Posner’s shrug indicated he had thought so himself.

‘If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving be me,’ he stood up bitterly.

‘Auden?’ Scripps asked.

Posner walked away.

‘I’m allowed.’


End file.
